Lot 1
PAIR OF FRENCH OR ITALIAN TIN GLAZED APOTHECARY JARS PROBABLY FROM THE SAME SERIES
POSSIBLY CASTEL DURANTE OR FRANCE, 2ND HALF 16TH CENTURY
Auction: 26 June 2013 at 12:00 BST
Description
each with an ovoid body tapering to a flared foot and short flaring rim, painted in dark and light blue, yellow, ochre, green and black; one, with a profile portrait of a man in contemporary costume wearing a plumed hat, ruff and doublet with the inscription behind 'ALFO (N?)SO' above an inscription ' VO:STOMATICO' on a label below; the other jar with an unidentified coat of arms with curled framing ribbons and an indistinct landscape in the background and an inscription on a label 'DIA. LACCA' all within a fruit wreath (2)
Dimensions
13.5cm diam, 16cm high
Footnote
Provenance:
Property of a Gentleman of Title
In the collection of the family of the present owners since the late 19th / early 20th century. Entries in the family archives suggest that maiolica was acquired between 1894 and 1916 from three different sources: from G. Donaldson in 1894 (with two items bought from the Spitzer Collection) in 1896 and in 1897; from H.A. Peto in 1899 and from S.M. Crossley in 1908 and in November 1916. If these jars were thought to be Italian at the date they were acquired they would most probably be from this group.
Note:
See R.E.A. Drey , Apothecary Jars, London, 1978, p.233,236 and 209 for references to contents.
See G.C.Bojani, C.Ravanelli Guidotti, and A. Fanfani, la Donazione Galeazzo Cora - ceramiche dal medioevo al X!X secolo, Fabbri Editori 1985, cat.31, p.130, for a syrup jar with some of the stylistic features of this piece such as the spreading foot and its decoration, ribbons, and loose sketchy landscape behind the coat of arms.